


Synthesis

by inelegantly (Lir)



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, F/F, Shapeshifting, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-05
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-30 05:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5151401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/pseuds/inelegantly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having magic means that there are problems that only Maki can solve. The most difficult of which: believing that she need not solve them alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Synthesis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Icie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icie/gifts).



> I admit, this is not the story I originally set out to write. But it was a lot of fun to work on, and I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

The spell hangs behind Maki like a work of modern art, a constellation of crystals suspended over the poetry of the working's magical diagram. Maki has drawn and redrawn the figures for the spell, puzzling out the phrasing for the one question she only hopes that magic can answer for her.

She hopes that her mother would be proud. 

It isn't the first time she's tried to write this spell, struggling to put into words all the nebulous things she wants answered. She has a legacy to live up to, with a family as old and well-practiced as hers. But isn't that her problem in the first place? There's only so long a little witch can rely on family spells and traditions. Maki _needs_ this magic, if she wants to build anything of her own. 

She turns away from her latest re-balancing of the great spell's structures. Everything about it has been checked, and re-checked. This time the magic will work — Maki simply needs a little extra power. 

Light slants down through the high windows of Maki's casting room, catching on the crystals in her spell array and breaking into rainbows that illuminate the remaining bare stretch of floor. Maki takes her chalk in hand, marking out a new circle adjacent to the careful writing of her already-drawn spell. This diagram is much faster work — a few figures for power requirements, one to limit the casting, and the addition of her name, gracefully drawn in longform as a promise to pay forward any assistance she might be given. 

She places her hands to either side of the diagram, opens her mouth, and lets the magic read her desires through her to the listening quiet of the universe. 

It's a sense that builds around her as she speaks, of power gathering into the reservoir that she's built for it, of forces greater than herself scenting the threads of her working and giving of themselves, doing so for nothing greater the simple reward of hearing the sound of her voice. Her voice is strong and sure as she reads, rising and falling with a lilt like water over stones, a musicality to the magic which the universe longs to hear. 

She draws toward the end of the incantation, the center of the diagram contorting beneath the power it's been asked to contain. Maki can feel the pressure on her skin and an electricity in the air, can see it distorting over her diagram as the physical world strains to depict for human senses the potential that Maki has called forth. The distortion appears as a twist of light, like a star that's been caught between the pressed-down palms of Maki's hands.

Then the star winks out, a little black cat jumping through the indistinct halo of its heat haze before that, too, fades to only light dazzles at the corners of Maki's vision. 

She takes one look at the cat and wordlessly screams.

It's a muffled sound, frustration forced out between gritted teeth as Maki yanks her hands back from the diagram and rises to her feet. Her hands press to her cheeks and her eyes raise toward the ceiling in askance for help, imploring the universe to reveal that this isn't what it looks like.

Maki drops her gaze toward the diagram again. The cat is still there. It is still exactly what it looks like. 

"You can't possibly be the answer to the spell," Maki wails. "Which means I've gotten it wrong _again._ "

The cat sits down on its haunches, tilting its head at her before studiously beginning to wash. Its yellow eyes are bright against its dark-furred body, and the drag of its tongue against one paw does little to convince Maki of the cat's innocence. 

"Oh, _don't_ give me that look," she says to it despairingly, the plea bringing the tone of her voice uncomfortably close to a whine. "This is the third time in a week. Unless the universe is saying I ought to sacrifice you for the magic, I really don't see the meaning of this!" 

The cat jerks back at the word _sacrifice,_ and then back further, straightening up until feline form drops away and it's a girl sitting in the diagram instead, knees apart and one curled hand raised up toward her cheek.

"Hey!" she says. "I wouldn't say stuff like that if I summoned you!" 

"It's not like I _meant_ to," Maki says, then glances away, embarrassed over what she'd said. She isn't the type of witch who makes animal sacrifices. "Just go home. I hadn't meant for you to be here at all." 

There's a scuffing sound, and Maki looks back to see her guest pawing at the inside of the circle with dirty little fingers. When she notices Maki looking at her, she lifts her hands, placing them against air like a mime feeling her way out of an invisible box. She cracks a grin. 

"Can't! You're the witch, don't you know how these summoning things work?" 

Maki very much does, after summoning a shapeshifter instead of a power source three times in one week. With a frustrated little huff she swipes her foot out, scuffing it across the figure knotting the diagram closed and opening up the circle. 

"Of course I do," Maki says. "There. Go ahead and get out of here." 

The girl hops to her feet, stepping out of the circle with a bounce in her step and bringing her face too close to Maki's with a suddenness that startles her. The yellow cat-eyes are even brighter from only a breath away. 

"What were you trying to do, anyway?" she asks, tilting her head to the side. The black ears perched atop it twitch curiously, and Maki has to stop from pushing her away. 

"It's none of your business, Rin," she says, turning her face to the side and scowling down at the chalk lines still drawn on the floor. "And anyway, I asked you to leave. I summoned you, so you had ought to listen to that." 

"Uh-uh," Rin says, twisting around to put her face back in front of Maki's and sounding _far_ too pleased with herself. "You didn't bind me. Now that I'm here I can do whateeeever I want!" 

"I didn't—!" Maki exclaims. "That isn't—!" 

She looks down at the broken magical circle again, despairing to realize that it's true. In a smaller voice, not wanting to admit that binding Rin hadn't occurred to her at all: "It's only— It seemed that it would be rude." 

"Because of Kayo-chin?" 

"Because of—" But Maki cuts herself off, aware the conversation is getting her nowhere. 

The great-spell is still incomplete, her power-summoning was a failure, and now she has a pesky shapeshifter on her hands, prying into her spellwork and eyeing the crystals in the array with an intensity which is beginning to make Maki nervous. Maki reaches out and grabs Rin by the wrist, before she can bat at any of the carefully-suspended spell components. 

"Because of Kayo-chin," Maki resumes. "Let's just leave it at that."

* * *

"All the houses in your neighborhood are so big, Maki-chan!" Rin says, looking about her with wide-eyed delight.

"Could you—" Maki begins, glancing furtively around her and making another small attempt at tugging her hand free of Rin's grasp. But the other girl's fingers are wound tightly around her wrist, and Maki isn't yet desperate enough to tug. "Would you mind being a bit less... Obvious?" 

"Obvious?" Rin echoes, tilting her head to the side, and then grinning. "I'm just enjoying the nice day, and the nice atmosphere!" 

She curls her arm a bit closer around Maki's, pressing in against Maki's side and sticking her face right up underneath Maki's nose. Maki rears back as far as she's able with Rin clutching her arm, and comes completely to a stop. 

"I'm only escorting you back to Hanayo's because you were unwilling to leave on your own," she says. "And I thought it would be less conspicuous to walk with someone who looked like, like a person. Clearly I was wrong." 

She sniffs, and starts walking again, trusting Rin to either follow or release the hold on her arm. But after a moment she jerks her head back toward Rin, asking, "Are you _sure_ no one else notices—" She waves her free hand at Rin's gently flicking ears, at the slim black tail waving behind Rin as she walks. "—well, any of this?" 

"Of course not!" Rin says. "Humans are really dense, did you know that?" 

Maki sighs, but Rin only squeezes her hand and begins to swing their arms gently in time with their steps. Maki looks off to one side, trying to ignore it. She's trying to ignore the light breeze blowing past them, too, and how blue the sky is overhead. She'd wanted to get an early start on her spellwork and it's only afternoon, though to her it feels as if the entire day is over and wasted. 

It's a very nice day, and that makes it even more of a shame to have it ruined. 

"You haven't been to visit Kayo-chin in a while," Rin says, cheerfully filling up the silence that had fallen between them. "Not since that very first time. It's kind of rude!" 

"It isn't," Maki insists. "We hardly know each other. Certainly not well enough for me to be babysitting Hanayo's familiar." 

"Babysitting?" Rin asks, and laughs. "Is this babysitting?" 

She drops Maki's hand, skipping backwards a few steps with her arms out for balance. There's a smile again on her lips, but a dangerous one, a grin with a devious edge which Maki does not like the look of. She wraps her arms close around herself, and frowns. 

"That's how it feels," she says, "when I certainly hadn't meant to invite you out of my own accord." 

"But you did," Rin says, continuing to walk backwards in front of Maki. "You're the one who cast the spell. And you're a witch, you know that the magic always works, some way or another." 

"I don't need a familiar to tell me that!" 

"Don't you?" Rin asks. 

It's said so innocently, bright cat-yellow eyes watching Maki with a calm steadiness. It makes Maki feel inexplicably guilty — like she's the one being difficult, and not the other way around. She only wanted to be left alone to fix the magic that had gone wrong, she wasn't asking for any of this! 

But as Rin was pointing out, had the magic _really_ gone wrong in the first place? 

"I told you," Maki says. "There's no way that you could be the answer to that spell. The... Project, that I'm working on, will take a great deal of energy to power, more than I could reasonably hope to pay at one time, not by myself. You're a familiar, which means you're hardly a useful power source." 

Rin keeps staring at her, so intensely that Maki can feel her cheeks start to flush with nervous expectation. But after another moment Rin simply spins around, skipping a few steps ahead of Maki and clasping her hands together behind her back. Her tail lifts, swaying casually in time with her steps. 

"For someone as smart as you," Rin says. "You're really dumb, Maki-chan. But I already knew humans were dense!" 

"Hey!" Maki exclaims, reaching forward to grab at Rin's wrist. 

Before she can tug Rin around and — what? demand that Rin apologize for teasing her? — Rin yanks her along, off down the next street and into a different neighborhood. The houses are smaller and closer together here, but equally homey to the ones along Maki's street, cozy little cubbyholes with bushes and greenery all around, each of the yards bright with flowers. 

"You're taking me home, aren't you?" Rin asks. "This way, this way!" 

She laughs, and Maki begrudgingly allows herself to be dragged down the street. It's not a familiar walk, but it is one she's made once before, years ago, when Hanayo first moved into the neighborhood. Perhaps Rin is right, perhaps it was rude of her, not to keep in touch. She remembers her mother gently straightening her collar, on that morning years ago, and telling her how important it was to make a strong first impression. 

Perhaps there was something more Maki was meant to do, on that sunny morning long in the past, something she'd nevertheless forgotten.

* * *

"Kayo-chin!" Rin calls, as she pushes open the door to the last house on the block.

She's still holding Maki by the wrist, after having dragged her around the back of the house, down along a row of hedges, and along to the kitchen entrance. The outside of the building is dripping with ivy, planters nestled along each of the windows and joyously overgrowing so that green, living things pour over the edges and cling to the terracotta. There isn't a light on inside the kitchen, casting the room into a sort of green gloom warmed only by what yellow sunlight streams in through the windows in between the plants. 

"I'd ask if this was alright," Maki says, this time succeeding in pulling her hand back from Rin's grasp, "but I suppose you do live here. Hanayo hasn't gone out, has she?" 

"Of course she hasn't," Rin says, waving a hand breezily at Maki, as if to brush away her worries. "I can smell her." 

"W-Well," Maki says, pushing past the strangeness of that. Her family never had much business working with familiars, and the handful of encounters she's had with Rin are opening her eyes to what she's (thankfully) been missing out on. "I only meant to see you out of my home and back to your own, so if you're certain your... Mistress? Is home, I'll be taking my lea—" 

"Rin!" A different voice exclaims, as soft footsteps bring its owner into the doorway. "And... O-Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't... Realize we were having company, Maki, hello." 

"I-It's nothing so important as that," Maki says, glancing away. "If I meant to pay a social call I would give you more warning than this. I was walking Rin home." 

"She did the poof-y thing again," Rin adds. 

She's across the room in an instant, popping up by Hanayo's side and rubbing her cheek affectionately into Hanayo's shoulder. For a moment Hanayo is distracted, glancing down at Rin's orange head and reaching one hand up to gently touch the back of it. But then Rin darts a too-sharp look back across the room to Maki, and Hanayo remembers her company. 

"Rin!" she says again, a scolding note to her voice. "I want to entertain our company." 

"I told you," Maki insists. "I don't mean to be a bother. If it's all the same, I'll take my leave now, and allow you to return to... Whatever it is you might be working on." 

"Nonsense," Hanayo says. Her voice is soft, but there's an underlying determination to it. She doesn't shake Rin off her arm but when Rin pulls herself free and straightens to a more dignified pose, something tells Maki it's all the result of Hanayo's quiet firmness. "I mean. Please, you'll come inside, won't you?" 

Maki glances at the still-open door behind her, and with only a bit of resignation, pushes it silently closed. 

"I am sorry," Maki says. "I never meant to borrow your familiar, and it seems I've done it more than once." 

"Rin-chan does go where she likes," Hanayo says, with a bit of a gentle smile. "If she's turning up for you, it must be because she wants to." 

"Kayo-chin," Rin pouts. "I told you, she's been doing the poof-y thing. It's not like I even get the chance to go anywhere! One minute I'm here and the next I'm in Maki-chan's spell circle." 

"Oh," Hanayo says, her eyes going wide. "You meant a magical sort of borrowing." 

Maki wrings her hands, uncertain of how to proceed. She's never felt she had to explain a magical working to someone before — has never really had anyone around to whom she _could_ explain, with any expectation that they would understand. The only other witch she's ever answered to is her mother. 

"I'll make us some tea," Hanayo says, turning away suddenly. "I-In case you want to talk. Since you're here now." 

She bustles around her own kitchen, finding the kettle (and taking some herbs Maki wasn't quick enough to identify out of it, some herbs Maki is _fairly_ certain she wouldn't want to drink the brewings of), and putting it on the stove to warm. Maki holds herself aloof while Hanayo is in motion, watching with a caught sort of helplessness and uncertain what she is meant to do with herself. 

"Come sit down, Maki-chan," Rin says, from so close beside her ear that Maki jumps in surprise. She hadn't heard Rin sidling up to her side. 

But Rin takes her by the hand and Maki does not resist, allowing herself to be led to the square little table off on one side of the room, overhung by even more plants trailing out of a planter suspended from the ceiling. Maki realizes that while she knows Hanayo is also a witch, she's never given much thought to what Hanayo's specialty could be. 

She's never given much thought to Hanayo at all, beyond their first meeting, and the stab of guilt strikes through her again. 

"Is there a kind of tea you would prefer?" Hanayo says, turning around with a little sachet in each hand. "I have orange blossom, and jasmine, and wild rose." 

"Anything you choose will be fine," Maki says, sliding into the chair Rin has pulled out for her. "Do you grow the ingredients you use yourself?" 

"Oh! I — yes, mostly," Hanayo says. She turns back toward the kettle, but it's busying itself working up to a boil without her, and there's nothing else for her hands to do. Even in profile, Maki can see the somewhat self-conscious smile pulling at Hanayo's mouth. 

She looks away, feeling compelled to give Hanayo privacy, but that only allows her gaze to fall on Rin instead. Rin is wiggling where she stands, hands clasped behind her back and a bright grin splashed across her face, eyes alight as she darts looks toward Maki, then Hanayo, then back to Maki again. 

"Well?" Rin asks. "Are you going to tell Kayo-chin about the poof-y thing, or am I going to have to do it?" 

"I wasn't—" Maki begins. "That's personal. It's part of a spell I'm working on that hasn't yet be completed, and while I realize I've now involved you, it was very much not on purpose and I would prefer to finish the entire endeavor by myself all the same." 

Rin's only response is a snort, and Maki can feel herself flush. 

"If you don't, mmm, mind," Hanayo says, taking a few steps closer from the stove. "I really would like to hear about it. There... Aren't a lot of big spells I can do by myself, but I make do. And I do have Rin to help." 

Rin visibly puffs herself up, tail swishing back and forth with her self-importance. 

"I can only imagine what a great help that must be," Maki says, dryly. 

She regrets her rudeness almost as soon as the words are out of her mouth, but to her surprise, Hanayo laughs. She takes the couple of steps more that bring her to the chair opposite Maki's, and lowers herself to sit with Maki at the table. 

"This is most of what I do," Hanayo says, looking up at the live plants dangling from their planters, glancing around at the bunches of dried plants stashed on shelves and tucked into cabinets, at the fruits and vegetables lining the countertops and heaped into bowls. Maki realizes that Hanayo must have grown _all_ of it. "Charms, and potions, and little magics. It isn't much, but... well... there's always call for a hedge-witch." 

She glances down at her hands, laughing softly, then looks back up at Maki's face. "And Rin helps! And it's very comfortable, and I like it a lot! But it isn't the same as doing big spells, and, well... If you wanted to, I'd like to hear what you're working on." 

The kettle whistles, but Maki and Hanayo both ignore it. 

"It's really not all that interesting," Maki says, reaching up to twist a lock of her hair. "It's kind of... A spell to figure out what I'm good at. To put it in the simplest possible terms." 

"You don't need a spell for that," Rin jokes. "You're plenty good at plucking me off Kayo-chin's warm bed with your summoning magic, even if I don't want to be plucked!" 

"That's not..." Maki starts, falling silent as she considers how to explain. "There are skills that I'm good at, and I do know that. But magic can be more than little things, if you want it to be. That's the kind of magic my family has always done, for generations — big, careful spells that help people, ones that are intricately, cleverly put together. That's my family's legacy." 

She pauses, realizing that Rin has helped her see her problem in a simpler light than any of the spellwork she's done before. "I'm building a spell that will help me find a problem only I can solve, so I can build that kind of a spell. A spell that will help the universe, in a way it couldn't do for itself." 

"Maki..." Hanayo says, her voice soft and awed. "You want to do that, all by yourself?" 

"Well, I mean, it's not—" Maki starts. She looks down, tugs at her hair again. "When you put it that way, it sounds like I'm doing something dangerous! And I'm not. I only want to do magic that will help people." 

To herself, she adds, _I only want to do magic that will make my family — my mother — proud._

"But... That sounds like a lot for one person to do," Hanayo says. "Is that why you keep summoning Rin?" 

"It's not that I _want_ to summon her!" Maki insists. "I mean — it's not that I'm trying to steal your familiar, or induce her to work for me without giving you any input. The problem is that the main spell is so _big,_ and the power it requires is so much. I was trying to summon something that could help power the spell." 

"She doesn't think I'm any good for that," Rin points out, sniffing. "Tell her, Kayo-chin. Tell Maki that I'm very good at helping with spells." 

Hanayo smiles at that, her face softening. "I'm always very happy to work with you." 

Rin puffs up again, delighted with the praise. "Now tell Maki-chan she's dumb for not realizing her spell is working fine! When something fails the same way three times, wouldn't you think that's what it's supposed to do?" 

"That's not..." Maki glances away, frustrated again. "Of course I've thought of that. I keep changing the spell to allow for some other possibility, and I keep limiting the requirements of the power source more and more, but each time I somehow _still_ call you to me. Of course it's occurred to me that I'm supposed to _do_ something with you, but I didn't want to!" 

It's only when Hanayo and Rin both stare at her that Maki realizes her voice has scaled up until it's almost a shout.

"...Sorry," she says, at a much softer volume. "I've been working really hard on this. I didn't mean to snap." 

"Rin might be right," Hanayo says, then immediately holds up her hands in fear of being scolded. "I mean! Magic always works, doesn't it? So if the magic _is_ working, and Rin is the right answer, well..." 

She trails off, and looks down, her cheeks slowly turning pink. 

Rin slides up beside Maki again, elbowing her gently in the arm. "Let Kayo-chin help you with your spell. She's not really flashy or dramatic, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have power! Kayo-chin can do whatever it is you were looking for." 

"Rin!" Hanayo exclaims, covering her face with her hands. 

"I couldn't," Maki says, at almost the exact same time. "That's more than I have any reason to expect you to give. This is my spell, it's too much to ask." 

"But Maki-chan," Rin says. "Didn't you just say it's a spell to find out what you're supposed to be _doing_ with magic?" 

"Well, yes," Maki says. "I'm glad you understood that." 

Rin sticks out her tongue at the sarcasm, but doesn't let it slow her down. "Then if that's what the spell's _for,_ don't you think it's pretty dumb not to take the answer it's trying to give you?" 

"That's—" Maki starts to say. 

But she can't finish. She's done her best to avoid the solution Rin has been shoving at her, but it's impossible to defer when offered to her so bluntly. Maybe... Maybe Rin is right, and the answer to her problem has _always_ been to form a partnership. 

She remembers shaking Hanayo's hand, when they first met so many years ago, and wishing her luck with her magic. She'd forgotten how Hanayo's home looked, earthy and green and growing, had forgotten how _foreign_ that felt to her, after her family's cool sterility of spell-casting. At the time, it had been too unfamiliar for Maki to see any place for her in it. 

Perhaps she can ensure it becomes something familiar now. 

"I didn't want to be an imposition," she says, lacing her fingers too-tightly together. "But if you're both very sure you want to help, I would... Be happy to show you the spell array, just as soon as you'd like to see it." 

"Really?" Hanayo says, eyes brightening as she leans across the table more quickly than Maki could have expected. "I never really work with arrays, do you do all the figures yourself? I would love to!" 

Maki laughs, more nervously than anything, but as her awkward chuckles die away she finds herself to be smiling. "Thank you. I hope the magic lives up to your expectations." 

"Maki-chan!" Rin says, nudging her in the arm again. "It's not that we have _expectations._ We just want to do this, with you!" 

Maki puffs up her cheeks for a second, then shakes her head, the smile still fighting her for a place on her lips. "It's not that I don't want you to, or anything. I think... I really would like to work with a partner. Or two." 

"And we'd like to work with you, too!" Hanayo agrees. "We could even— Oh! The tea!" 

She hops up immediately from her chair, bustling across the kitchen to check whether the kettle is still warm. Rin laughs, trailing cheerfully in Hanayo's wake and pulling down mugs from the cupboards. Maki simply remains in her seat, watching Rin hold out the cups as Hanayo pours hot water, witnessing how smoothly and happily they work together, neither getting in the other's way. 

Yes, she really might like working with a partner or two after all.

* * *


End file.
